Daily Texan Article!

While at the cheese festival, my friends and I were approached by a writer for the Daily Texan, who asked our thoughts about the cheeses there. We told him our favorites and our least favorites and when he asked to see the bad ones we directed him to the chocolate cheddar and the 10 year cheddar (which I personally liked but nobody else did ). He took some notes and we have been wondering if we'd be in the article...

and it turns out we are! :)

"Three recent UT graduates, Dominique Tremino, Becca Aiello and Katie Gannon, were huddled around a fresh mozzarella table and giggling as they watched me try “cocoa cheddar” and a cheddar aged for 10 years, which they affirmed were the “nastiest” cheeses at the festival."

Hooray!

Chalone Vineyard Cabernet and Goat Brie

I have so many bottles of wine on my wine rack and buy wine so frequently that I sometime forget about bottles for long periods of time. I thought it was about time I try one of my oldest bottles, and that was this Chalone Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.

I bought this bottle at HEB once when they were having a half off sale, and it was originally $16 and I have just seemed to forget about it until now. I've probably had it for about 2 years now, and Im pretty sure its not the type of wine that needs to be aged.

One thing I immediately noticed about this wine that was it was not as dry and tannic as I would have expected. It was very smooth, fruity, and drinkable.

To go with the wine, I had a goat brie that I picked up at Whole Foods. As is pretty obvious, Im really into goat cheese lately and at the cheese festival I found that I really do like bries, which surprised me. I used to not like them at all, but maybe they are growing on me.

Festival of Cheese - Market

I went back to the Hilton Sunday morning to see what kind of cheese I could buy at the cheese market. I didn't really know what to expect other than that the cheeses would be heavily discounted and I should probably get their early. I arrived just after it opened, around 10:15 and already there were about 100 people roaming a very small room with mountains of cheese in their arms. The cheeses were in HUGE chunks, like whole wheels and multi-pound blocks.

What was truly amazing was the fact that ALL cheese was being sold at $5/lb. FIVE DOLLARS A POUND! You cant even get a chunk of kraft cheddar at the grocery store for that. We're talking artisan cheese at $20-30+ a pound normally. So anyway this was amazing, but would have been even more amazing if you could buy smaller chunks of the cheeses. I really don't want 5 lbs of gouda even if I do love it! Although I looked hard, it appears that any small chunks there might have been had been snatched up already.

Another annoying thing was that hardly anything was marked. The cheeses were vaguely arranged by types on the tables, but you couldn't tell what anything really was. So aside from having to buy a huge chunk of something, it might not be something you love.

Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post, my favorite cheeses of the night were all soft cheeses and those were all in individual packages and containers. So thats what I focused on. I ended up getting 5 things and wish I had gotten more. I found a container of Alouette cream cheese spread (also available at HEB) that I always love, as well as an herb covered goat cheese from Pure Luck Austin cheesery. I also found one of my favorites from last night, the soft cheese with raspberry puree. Rounding out my purchase was a small unflavored goat cheese, and a goat brie. I couldn't tell how much all that would be, and there really wasnt too much to choose from, so I just stopped there.

At the cash register I picked up 2 boxes of these AMAZING crispbread crackers to go with all the soft cheeses. These crackers are wafer thin and pretty much taste like an ice cream cone - which is nothing. They add no flavor to cheese, have barely any calories, and are just perfect.

My total for the 5 cheeses was only $10 and at $2 a box of crackers, my total came out to be $14, which is WAY underpriced for all the stuff I got! I only wish I had bought more!

Festival of Cheese

I decided to go to the cheese festival after all and it was AMAZING! I went with 2 friends and we were all super pumped to see what 1000+ cheeses would look like displayed in the Hilton ballroom and we were in pure shock at the outcome. First of all, everything was beautifully displayed on silver platters in sections arranged by type of cheese. There were all kinds of fruit, crackers, and breads on the tables as well to compliment the cheeses. Each cheese winner also had a ribbon nearby to alert you to the really good ones.

My goal for the night was to try 100 cheeses, so I tried to watch what I ate and drank. I skipped all the bread, fruit, and only used small bits of crackers when necessary, so that I could try as many cheeses as possible. At first we went crazy, trying anything and everything that looked delicious, but soon found out that was a bad idea. After about an hour (and 50 or so cheeses) we were full and lethargic. Oops. So we took a break and sipped some of the complimentary wine they had there. I chose an ice wine and actually liked it a lot! The crisp sweetness paired really well with all the crazy rich and salty cheeses. Then we got to trying some more, and I tried to be more selective this time to save room. I tried to take pictures of some of my favorites:

This cheese wasnt something I had heard of but it was so delicious and creamy and had a blackberry puree in the center that mixed with it.

There were seriously sooo many goudas and it was cool to taste a few side by side.

I really liked this 10 yr aged cheddar, but it got mixed reviews among my friends. There were actually 4 whole tables just of cheddar so it was impossible to taste even a good sampling of them all.

This was just one of the tables filled with cheddar.

This was the WORST cheese of the night! It claimed to be chocolate cheddar, so of course I had to check it out and it ended up being DISGUSTING! It didn't taste like chocolate at all and instead was way way way too strong and almost bitter.

I didn't have an absolute favorite cheese of the night, but rather a favorite table. That would be the collection of soft goat cheeses. There were just plain goat cheeses in logs, soft cheese spreads, and spreads mixed with other flavors and all, ALL were incredible. Its the only time I actually ate a cheese twice. Tomorrow there is a cheese market where you can buy any of the cheeses from tonight and if I got a thing or two it would be a soft goat cheese. Here are some pictures:

Actually it was the goat cheeses that got me to my goal of 100 cheeses! I saw some of them the first time around, but I only had about 80 cheeses with 15 mins to go and I spotted a whole new table of them! So I ended up trying 100 unique cheeses tonight! Id say about 80 - 90% were delicious, with a few being meh (unpasteurized goat cheese... who knew?) and only a few being downright terrible (Im talking you, chocolate cheddar!)

A final cool thing about the night was that there was a blue ribbon table where all the best cheeses were displayed.

And here was the best in show cheese ... drum roll...

I tasted this blue cheese and it was pretty good, but Im not personally a big blue lover so Im not the best judge. Apparently the festival people thought it was pretty amazing though!

Anyway, overall the festival was just amazing, amazing, amazing and I probably gained a few pounds but this is probably the only time I will get to go to something like this. I am very happy I decided to go, and yes it was worth the $75. Hooray!

Barefoot Moscato

After writing about and drinking that Gallo White Zinfandel, I had a craving to try my old stand-by, Barefoot wines. It really has probably been a couple of years since I have had one, and since I used to like them so much they deserve a second chance. One time I went to the store when they were on sale and got like one of every flavor to try haha, so I was pretty familiar with all of them.

EXCEPT the moscato! I went to HEB and looked around for one to try and saw they have a new one out! Also, moscatos and muscat canellis are becoming one of my new favorite wines since the Austin Wine Festival, so of course I had to get this one. I even got a chance to try out my new wine glasses! I went to a GoodWill recently to look for The Sims 3 (found it for a dollar!!!) and saw a matching set of 4 colored champagne flutes which were miraculously not broken.

The bottle says this wine has hints of peach, apricot, lemon, and orange and thats a pretty accurate description. It especially tastes like peach and lemon to me and smells AMAZING! It smells sweet and floral, maybe like a honeysuckle? Not sure about that, but either way its delicious. Its also a very light wine, coming in at 9% alcohol. Overall Id say this is a delicious, light summery wine that I would definitely get again. What's even better is that its still only $5.99!

One more thing... the Austin Cheese Society is coming into town on Saturday for their annual Cheese Festival and I WANT TO GO! This is a once a year festival that moves around the country every year and may not ever come to Austin again, so its really a once in a lifetime chance. There will be 1000+ cheeses from all over the country along with snacks and wine and you get to meet the cheesemakers as well! Its held at the Hilton hotel downtown, so its sure to be a fancy affair. The only thing possibly holding me back is the pricetag of $75 a ticket. Still, its a once in a lifetime chance and Im strongly considering going.

Gallo White Zinfandel

Even wine connoisseurs (in training) need a day off and sometimes you have to go back to basics. When I first started drinking wine years ago, my favorite thing was white zinfandel. It was light, fruity, and totally accessible. It was also super cheap and abundant. My old favorite was Barefoot White Zinfandel, which broke the bank at a cool $4.99.

Anyway, I recently got a 4 pack of Gallo White Zinfandels recently! The great thing about the 4 packs is that you don't have to open a whole bottle of wine and risk it going bad before you can drink it all. Its great for when you just want a little bit of something. For this reason I used to get these fairly frequently a few years ago.

Its been a while, but it was time to taste them again. This wine is bright pink and tastes like a sweet strawberry. Its as simple as that - tastes like a strawberry. But a delicious strawberry! This wine is also very light (9% alcohol) and can easily be drunk on its own - Im not sure what it would pair with. Its delicious, simple, and convenient. I wouldn't want this for special occasions or all the time, but it was a nice treat! Im also wondering if it would be good mixed with other things, since its so sweet and cheap. Perhaps throw in a shot of vodka? Sangria? Mix into a cocktail? I might be exploring some options! :o

Specs Wine Tasting

This Wednesday was the monthly Specs wine tasting so I set off with high hopes. One thing I noticed right away was that it was incredibly busy inside. Let me just take a moment to explain how the wine tasting is set up.

There are 10 barrels places around the store... in the aisles and in the corners usually... and there are 2 wines at each barrel. Usually the 2 wines are related in some way usually being from the same winery. There are a few employees at each barrel to punch your tasting sheet (so you cant come back and re-taste) and pour you some wine. Usually they are very chatty and love to tell you about the wines and get your opinions. HOWEVER, when the store is overcrowded, it messes up the flow of the whole tasting. I had to pretty much stand in a line at each barrel to get a taste, and the employees were very rushed and not as interested in talking. The crowds made it hard to move around the store, and a few times I was poured a taste of something with no explanation of what it was. To be honest thats my favorite part of the Specs tastings - learning about the wines.

So I was a bit disappointed but still, its free delicious wine so I cant complain. As I went around the barrels trying wine I realized something else weird though - I wasnt really loving any of it. I write a rating next to each wine I try, an X, a dash for meh, a check or a check plus. At the end of the night there were no check pluses, and only a few checks. Hmmm... usually I love about 5 or 6 wines and have trouble choosing which ones to buy at the end. This time I bought NO wine, which is a first. There just was nothing that wowed me, and everything was very average.

Which prompts me to wonder - how do they choose the wine for the tastings? Is there a theme among the 20 wines? Or are these the wines in the store that haven't been selling very well because they are less well known? (I usually cant recognize 90% of the wines at the tasting) Or are they wines that Specs gets paid to promote? I would like to find this out.

In the end, I just bought one cheese - which was one they weren't even sampling. Its just a plain soft goat cheese that I thought would be delicious on salads. Im trying to recreate that warm goat cheese salad I had on my birthday. So it turned out to be an interesting specs tasting as always, but not terribly productive.